reading voices
by Trixie1029
Summary: One might assume nothing good can come from Ferdinand von Aegir and Hubert von Vestra being trapped in the infirmary together. And they would be right. For the most part.


No fate is worse for Hubert than letting a day pass without doing anything. He could not even offer Lady Edelgard his congratulations on her latest victory.

Instead, he and Ferdinand are trapped in the second floor infirmary within the monastery by orders of Manuela and Lady Edelgard and they have been here for 32 hours — believe him to be counting the hours. He knows the spell that hit them at the end of the battle was very dark magic and needed to be taken care of right away or else, but by now they must be cleared for good health without suffering any side effects. Manuela nor the professor, however, seem to agree with his assessment.

Ferdinand, admittedly, is not the worst person to be around as of late and the other members of the Strike Force take pity on them and bring them books to read. Apparently everyone seems to think the only thing Hubert does when not plotting the down fall of half of Fodlan's remaining nobles is read. He does enjoy a good book, but some of those lent are… suspect at best.

And Ferdinand becomes a much less desirable "roommate" when he gets sick of staring at the ceiling and suggests that one of them read a book aloud to the other. Why they could not just read independently is a question that Ferdinand is pointedly dodging.

"What about this one?" Ferdinand holds up a book with a little grey cover and overly-pretty script. "Ashe says this one always cheers up his siblings when they're sick."

Without even needing to read the title, Hubert says, "Then, knowing Ashe, it is probably some tale of a sullen protagonist finding his way back to the 'true path of justice.'"

"Well," a brief moment of blessed silence pass as Ferdinand no doubt reads the first page to confirm his assumption. "Okay, you're not wrong."

"Next."

"Oh! This is one of Lady Edelgard's!"

"Skip, next."

"You're skipping a recommended book by Lady Edelgard? You can do that?"

"While I do not argue with her about political or war affairs or the future, I will question her taste in the book she reads for pleasure."

"You think they're bad?"

"Not all of them, but most of them are about over-accomplished heroes that do not really do anything within the story, yet somehow gets the credit and get treated like the savior. It is rather bland and bad."

"If you feel so passionately about it…" Ferdinand drops the book into the rejected pile, which is slowly over taking the books they have not gotten to. "This one? I think Petra brought us this one."

And so, Ferdinand staves off his boredom well into the night as they go through the whole the pile. At some point, Ferdinand gets frustrated enough to shove the book-filled cart at Hubert's bed with a "You decide then!" only for him, out of spite or genuine dislike, to end up rejecting the rest of the pile.

"This one is one that Dorothea brought in."

"Does it share a title with a known opera?" Ferdinand's eyes glaze over the book.

"I am not sure, but most likely," Hubert says as he flips through the pages of overwrought emotions and confessions.

"Then no, thank you. I'm not in the right mindset to appreciate the heartfelt emotions of the characters."

Hubert nearly wants to bring Ferdinand enough "heartfelt pain" to inspire his own tragic opera with these books alone, but resists the temptation and moves on to the next book.

When they reach the last book — a favorite of Hubert's that Lady Edelgard brought them, but Ferdinand is morally against, whatever that means — Hubert huffs and slams the book onto cart. "This was pointless. Why should we not just read by ourselves, quietly, with our own choice of books?"

"Don't be like that, Hubie!" the other man whines for, what feels like, the millionth time today. "It's too quiet up here that it's almost disturbing. Aren't you used to at least hearing crickets or night-bugs?"

"I happen to like this quiet. If you are so bored, then that is your own problem." Hubert opens up the book that the professor brought in, but Ferdinand thought is too dull to be read aloud.

* * *

Hubert effortlessly makes it through the first chapter before realizing what Ferdinand decided to entertain himself with. At first it seems like someone from the floor below is practicing their singing, but really, it is just Ferdinand humming, loudly, some tune. Probably from an opera.

While Hubert takes note of it, the humming does not truly bother him. He can concentrate just fine in a noisy place. Except when noise will not stop going on about how bored he is in different vocal ranges. Sure Ferdinand is not explicitly singing, "I am bored," but there are only so many phrases to say the same thing over and over again.

As Hubert flips the pages more aggressively, and nearly tearing a few, Ferdinand humming- turned-singing becomes stage-singing and soon the two are in a battle of who can ignore the other the longest. While Hubert thinks he will win — Ferdinand's voice starts cracking from singing without warming up — their competition ends without a winner with Manuela slaming the infirmary's door open.

"Will you two shut up?! For Goddess' sake, even with this headache, I can still hear you in my room." Manuela shouts, nearly shrieking, at a them before collapsing. "Ow, my head. Uugh, shouldn't haave shouted… Shouldn't have gootten out oof bed."

Ever ready to be the savior, Ferdinand says, "Are you okay?"

He starts getting out of bed, but Manuela stops him, "If yoou so much as… set a…finger… fooot out of that bed, I will… I will… blaast you into next week." She would definitely be more threatening if her voice was not hoarse and speech slurred.

"That's a bit harsh, don't you think?"

"Just be a goood… boy… patient and doon't moove a muscle." When she sees that Ferdinand does what she says, tears start overflowing, "Uuuugh, why… why don't meen... listen to mee like that moore often. I'm noot demanding, but juust to liisteen to would bee nice."

"Did you have a date tonight?" Ferdinand asks and Hubert has never wanted to hit him with a Mire spell more than in this moment. Why did he, knowing full well what Manuela is like in these… moods, encourage her to talk? And how can Hubert end the inane conversation from even starting?

"Yees, aand I thought thiis one... waas.. waas... special. He kneew my favorite... reestaurant. And I mean... he even bought me flowers at the end! But apparently not as a... a... a... 'let's meeet again' gift. As a 'never... call upon mee again.'"

"I'm sure he didn't mean like that…"

"Whaat elsee could iit mean?"

"Maybe he just wants to be friends?"

"Friends? Ha!" Manuela says sounding the most sober. "As if! That man probably just wanted to go with an opera star, met me, and decided it was too much for him. Yes, that must be it! My starlight has taken another victim! Ugh, why is it always me?"

Hubert wishes he studied more faith magic so that he could at least attempt a silence spell on both Manuela, who goes on and on about the date, and Ferdinand, who keeps adding to the flames by asking inventive questions. A silence spell does fall over the room eventually; not by magic, but by Seteth.

"Do you have any idea what time it is? Why are you still making such a racket?" he shouts at them like Manuela before him as he walks pass the open door.

Manuela — from her hangover, lack of breathing from talking too much, or tiredness — faints and gives Ferdinand the chance to speak

"To be fair, Seteth, you're the loudest person right now," Ferdinand says.

Seteth crosses his arms and glares at the man, "Should you not be asleep by now?"

"We are not children." Hubert speaks up for the first time.

"No, but if you expect to do anything tomorrow, it would behoove you to rest now to get better and lessen the burden on the rest of us."

Hubert concedes the point by laying down on his back instead of proped up against he wall.

Ferdinand gets a syllable out before Seteth interrupts him, "I will take Manuela back to her quarters. And I will not hear a sound out of this room again, do you understand?"

"Yes, yes," Ferdinand complies and lies down as well.

It can not be more than a few moments after Seteth picks up Manuela and closes the door behind him before Ferdinand is back to whining about being bored.

"Honestly," Hubert sighs, "and you expect to be an advisor to Lady Edelgard."

"Being a good advisor and wanting something to do while trapped in a bed aren't mutually exclusive, you know."

"Just shut up and sleep."

"Come on, you won't even read me a bedtime story?"

"Why would I ever do that?"

Without missing a beat, he says, "Because I like your voi—" Needless to say, Ferdinand does not finish sentence, but he does not need to.

"Wha-what was that?" Hubert looks over to the other man properly for the first time tonight. He can not really see much with Ferdinand twisting his back to face him and laying his head away from Hubert. Still, for a moment, it almost seems like Ferdinand's face is flush enough to blend in with his bright-colored hair.

"Nothing. Good night."

"Hold, Ferdinand." Hubert wants to confirm, the almost certain, bashful look on his face. It is not everyday the other man is like this.

"Can't hear you. I'm asleep." Ferdinand lets out a snore that would not even fool an infant.

Hubert gives up. For now.

But who can say if Hubert gets up two hours before anyone will check up on them and begins reading Ferdinand's proclaimed favorite book aloud. And who can say if Ferdinand is awake and listening the entire time. Certainly not Ferdinand, himself, who for days on clearly want to express joy for it, but will not out of embarrassment.

Hubert takes it all back. Ferdinand von Aegir is a great roommate. Best in increments. But his reactions are something Hubert could watch for a very long time.

* * *

**A/N: So the prompt I used for this fic was "characters fight over a shared tv in a hospital room." But tvs don't really exist yet, so books were the subsitute.**

**Hoped you enjoyed this short little piece and thanks for reading!**


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